MISSING THE BUS
The world’s most famous Hippie Bus is lost and fans are searching the world to find it ahead of the 50th anniversary of Woodstock.
Arcadia Content
April 15th, 2018
HALIFAX NS – Join us on a journey to find a lost symbol that our characters believe will change the world.
They’re searching everywhere.
If only they could find their keys.
Dr. Bob painted the original Woodstock hippie bus in the summer of ’69 with symbols he believed would usher in the dawn of a new age. His friends drove the bus to Woodstock to deliver the message.
“It’s not psychedelic,” says Dr. Bob, “it’s symbolic.”
But somewhere in the 50 years since the message and the bus have been lost.
Now Dr. Bob has inspired a team of experts to help him find and restore the bus for Woodstock’s 50th.
Figure 1 - In the iconic AP news photo two barefoot hippies sit atop the Light Bus at Woodstock.
More info, photos and video – www.woodstockvwbus.com
Nothing more symbolizes the baby boom, the 60’s, and the hippie generation than Woodstock. And its ultimate symbol is the hippie bus. But the bus, like the opportunity and promise of the generation, is apparently lost. The quest is to find and revive it to reveal its true value.
“The Woodstock Bus, like the era of peace, love and understanding it symbolizes and celebrates, is very valuable… priceless. It is arguably the most well known piece of American modern pop cultural automotive art. And it’s lost. We’re out to find it,” says John Wesley Chisholm
The 50th anniversary of Woodstock is coming up in August 2019.
Here’s a local Baltimore news article about our search that’s been going on for about a year now.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bs-fe-lost-woodstock-bus-20170626-story.html
We have to expand the search.
“This is our last ditch effort to find information about the original bus. If nothing comes of the search in the next month or so we have a plan in place to restore a matching year and model bus (1963, 11 Window, non-walk through Volkswagen Type II, which we’ve also yet to find). It’s a complicated project. We’re documenting the whole story for a TV program,” says Chisholm
The bus was last seen about November 1972 near Baltimore.
Our last photo and licence plate is from April 1972. We’re investigating all leads. We’ve searched the archives for the registration. We’ve consulted detectives and psychics, investigators, experts, and VW fans and collectors worldwide.
We have a Kickstarter running through May that will enable more friends and fans to get involved with the restoration project.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1507309652/resurrecting-the-woodstock-vw-bus?ref=creator_nav
The schedule is to get the bus ready for painting in August 2018 and then get it on the road to Woodstock the long way round America. We plan to share the ride with people connected to and inspired by Woodstock along with mega-fans of VW buses.
“We’re out to help Dr. Bob restore the bus, and along with it maybe something of the Woodstock spirit of peace, love, and understanding. After the anniversary we’ll be looking for the best possible ‘forever home’ for the bus – a museum or gallery – so that it can be shared with the most people and it won’t be lost again.” says Chisholm.
VW buses have become a symbol of the era and the generation; they’ve also become valuable collector’s cars and campers and kept on the road by hundreds of thousands of loyal fans. A stock restored bus recently sold at auction for over $300,000 USD - http://vwbusandcamper.com/record-breaking-bus-sells-at-barrett-jackson-for-302k/
Background
For those not yet familiar with the Woodstock Bus "Light," here is an excerpt from the passage describing it in the David and Cee Eccles book, Traveling with the VW Bus and Camper, published by Abbeville Press. "Not only was the 'Light' Bus by Bob Hieronimus one of the first VW buses to be painted in the 'psychedelic sixties' style, its Woodstock heritage adds to its importance and influence on the future. It is not just another 'hippie bus,' but a work of art in its own right, which captures the mood and aspirations of a generation searching for its own identity and place in the universal scheme of things. The bus may have passed into legend, but its legacy as inspiration for new generations of VW bus owners lives on."
About Dr. Bob
“Dr. Bob”, Robert R. Hieronimus has been immersed in American symbols all his life. A visual artist, talk radio host, and historian, Hieronimus earned a Ph.D. with a sophisticated symbolic analysis of the reverse of the Great Seal as thesis. His weekly program, 21st Century Radio with Dr. Bob Hieronimus (http://www.21stCenturyRadio.com), is celebrating its 30th year of new paradigm talk radio.
About the Search Team
John Wesley Chisholm and the crew at Arcadia Content have been making a business of searching for lost and hidden things for over 15 years. Lost shipwrecks, Knights Templar, Stories of the Apostles, elusive narwhals, vintage machines and historic treasure have been the subject of their work with National Geographic and Discovery Channel. With this project, involving the search, restoration, and repainting, which they will document for broadcasters in the US, Canada, and Germany, they’re more challenged than ever before, and their time is running out.
Contact
To learn more about this project, please contact
John Wesley Chisholm, Search team leader
6454 Quinpool Road, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Direct: (902) 225-0763
